Pot and pan washing machines, of the type used in restaurants, institutions and other facilities often involve a large wash tank or basin in which water is circulated about the pots and pans to provide a washing action. One such machine is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,773,436 issued to Cantrell et al., the specification of which is incorporated herein by reference. The machine of Cantrell includes a wash tank with multiple jets spaced apart at an elevated position along a wall of the wash tank. The tank is filled with water to a level above the position of the jets. Pots and pans are placed in the wash tank, and a pump is activated to draw water from within the wash tank and direct it through the jets to create a jet stream. Each jet directs its jet stream toward the bottom wall of the wash tank, the bottom wall then deflects the jet stream upward and towards the front wall of the tank. The front wall then deflects the upward moving jet stream towards the rear wall of the tank, and the rear wall deflects the jet stream downward and back towards the front wall along the bottom wall. The combination of deflections of the jet stream from the bottom, front and rear walls provides a rolling washing action within the wash tank.
The inventions disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,739,348; 6,976,496; 7,162,788; and 7,246,624, the entire disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference, provide a number of improvements to machines such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,773,436. Nevertheless, loading, unloading and cleaning of long parts such as skewers and baskets of motorized commercial rotisserie cookers (such as chicken rotisserie cookers used in restaurants and commercial kitchens) is often difficult due to the size and shape of those items. Therefore, it is desirable to provide a system and method of cleaning such items, that adequately cleans all surfaces of the items and that allows for easy loading and unloading of the items from the washing machine.